June 15th, 2010

I am home again, after several days of trailing after Elizabeth Custer. Fort Leavenworth is a beautiful post. George and Elizabeth stayed there during George’s court martial in the late 1860s. I met with Becky and her assistant at the Fort museum bookshop and she gave me a tour of the facilities and promised to start carrying my books in the store. Both women were kind and eager to help. They had wonderful stories of encounters with Elizabeth’s ghost at the quarters where she and George lived for a time. The quarters are called the Syracuse House. The assistant at the bookstore gives guided tours of the post and the story of Elizabeth’s visit back to her old home is included on the tour. The women in the bookstore sent me to the archive department at the museum to collect information about Elizabeth and her time at Fort Leavenworth. Not only was I informed that the museum had nothing about Mrs. Custer, but the archivist was not even certain George and Elizabeth ever lived in the Syracuse House. Historical facts varied under the same museum roof. I managed to acquire a photo from the archives of the quarters. Military families are still being rotated in and out of the home. The post is located near the Missouri River in order for steamers to be loaded with supplies and sent on their way to points west. The book The Soldier’s Widow is due to be released in May of next year. Part of the promotional tour will include Fort Leavenworth and I am hoping New York. That is the only place I have not been where Elizabeth lived. Missouri as a whole was humid, sticky, and generally uncomfortable in every way. I do not see the Missouri Mark Twain described in his works. At the start of 2010, I received numerous threatening letters. The author’s were identified. I was persuaded not to press charges because they were young and in college. I agreed, but now I have changed my mind. Visits to my site on June 12 from Norborne, MO. and June 14 from Greensboro, NC., from the same two people who sent the initial threats make me believe that this is too serious to let go any further. So in between unpacking from the trip, completing the work on Chapter 10 of the Custer book, I will be conversing with the authorities on the next course of action. A new ad for the Go West series of books will appear in the next edition of True West Magazine. True West was recently named one of the best publications of its kind and I agree. Bob Boze Bell, Meghan Saar, and the other fine people whom run that magazine are talented and living the dream. It has been a delight to work with them. I have been asked about the progress for the various films Howard Kazanjian and I have been working on. The update is boring and frustrating. Howard continues to work on getting the funds for Thunder Over the Prairie from a new studio being formed in Hollywood. It has been more than a year since we met with Walter Hill to discuss the project. He is still interested, but the funds have been slow in coming around. Howard is to meet with the financiers tomorrow. In the meantime, other avenues of fund raising are taking place. I have not checked in on Playing for Time in a while. The last I heard the production company was meeting with casting directors. If all goes with the funding for Thunder Over the Prairie we will have the capitol for the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans film. I am going to continue to work on the Libbie Custer bio and then move on to the Sam Sixkiller book. At 49, I continue to believe the films will be made. Maybe I should let the notion go, but it is all I have dreamed of since I kid in humid, sticky, and generally uncomfortable Missouri.